Five Elements 五行
Lucky colors by Chinese element
The color, direction and season that early Chinese texts pair with each of the five elements
Elements, colors, directions and seasons
Early Chinese texts give each element one color: Wood is blue-green, Fire is red, Earth is yellow, Metal is white and Water is black. Each element also has a direction and a part of the year.
The character 青 (qīng) covers both green and blue-green. Water is black in the original texts. Blue for Water is a modern extension, not a color from these texts.
What the two texts say
《黃帝內經·素問》 (Sùwèn), chapter 金匱真言論, has no named author and was compiled in the Han dynasty or earlier. It lists colors by direction, such as 東方青色 for the east and 北方黑色 for the north.
《禮記·月令》 (Lǐjì, Yuèlìng), compiled in the Han dynasty, records what the Son of Heaven wore at each time of year, such as 衣青衣 in early spring and 衣黑衣 in early winter. It describes court ritual, not lucky colors for ordinary people.
The creating cycle 相生 and the overcoming cycle 相剋
《五行大義》 (Wǔxíng Dàyì) by 蕭吉, written in the late 6th century in the Sui dynasty, records both cycles. The creating cycle is in the section 第四論相生, which cites words found in 《春秋繁露》. The overcoming cycle is in the section 第十論相剋, which cites 《白虎通》 and 《春秋繁露》.
- 木生火Wood creates Fire
- 火生土Fire creates Earth
- 土生金Earth creates Metal
- 金生水Metal creates Water
- 水生木Water creates Wood
- 木剋土Wood overcomes Earth
- 火剋金Fire overcomes Metal
- 土剋水Earth overcomes Water
- 金剋木Metal overcomes Wood
- 水剋火Water overcomes Fire
The eight trigrams of 梅花易數 are sorted into the same five elements. A hexagram cast from a phone number is on Phone number by the Chinese system
Both circles show how one element relates to another. The texts do not say who wears which color.
Colors of the ten heavenly stems in 《五行大義》
The section 論配五色 cites 《五行書》 and gives each stem a color. Yang stems take a true color and yin stems take a mixed color.
- WoodYang stem, true color甲blue-green 青Yin stem, mixed color乙pale blue 縹
- FireYang stem, true color丙red 赤Yin stem, mixed color丁purple 紫
- EarthYang stem, true color戊yellow 黃Yin stem, mixed color己green 綠
- MetalYang stem, true color庚white 白Yin stem, mixed color辛red 紅
- WaterYang stem, true color壬black 黑Yin stem, mixed color癸black-yellow 驪黃
These are the colors in the text, not lucky colors of the year. No early text found sets a lucky color for a year. 赤 and 紅 are different characters that English also calls red.
How this compares with Thaksa
Each text answers a different question. Thaksa covers colors by birth day and by the day you wear them. BaZi reads the colors of the elements in a birth chart. Navagraha covers the colors of the deity of each day. Feng shui covers the colors of a direction or a room.
Thaksa
- Question
- Which color suits a birth day or the day you wear it
- Starts from
- The birth-day planet
Five Elements 《素問》
- Question
- Which color goes with each element
- Starts from
- The element, its direction and its part of the year
This site keeps the two apart and does not merge them into one score. A line on this page reads as a fact, such as: this text places red with the Fire element.
The two texts rest on different principles, so read the one you already follow. These colors are traditional belief, not a prediction.